


FF #12: Whatever It Takes

by CJ_fics



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 10:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2848157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJ_fics/pseuds/CJ_fics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver muses about how his regard for Felicity had grown over the past few years, and comes to a sudden realisation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	FF #12: Whatever It Takes

Oliver Queen’s sense of responsibility towards Felicity Smoak, the feeling that he was somehow responsible for her well-being, started on the day that he met her.  
  
Yes, she helped him access the data from the bullet-ridden laptop he’d brought her even though she made him aware that she wasn’t buying any of the crap he just handed to her. He was grateful to her for that. But more than that, meeting Felicity, catching himself smiling for the first time in five years over her babbling, made him realise that despite the trauma of his time away from Starling City, that he could still appreciate someone like Felicity Smoak. That he can still recognise concepts like _'cute'_ and _'adorable'_.  
  
There was something innocent about their first interaction, an innocence that he thought he had lost even before he got on the Queen’s Gambit. Perhaps, lost to him the first time he ever cheated on his first girlfriend. Or that time when he got into a secret, highly sexual relationship with his Tenth Grade English teacher.  
  
An innocence that he craved and instinctively knew he could find only in her presence. So he sought her out for science and tech support, even though logic and strategy dictated that he should not rely on one person to fulfill his tech needs.  
  
With the realisation that he looked forward to bringing tech issues to Felicity came the acknowledgment that he was somehow responsible for her well-being.  
  
It grew from there.  
  
When she asked him, “ _Can I trust you?_ ”, he knew then that whatever sense of responsibility he felt for her now included making sure that he could be someone she can rely on. That he had to be someone that Felicity Smoak could trust — to not only protect her but to help her.  
  
When he brought her in to his crusade, protecting her, as he had promised Diggle that they would do, became top priority. For a long time, in his mind, his obligation to Felicity was to protect her, to make sure that she was physically safe from what they were doing.  
  
Then Russia happened. Felicity’s disappointment, directed at him, hurt. It hurt more because he knew he deserved it. It hurt even more when she told him that he _'deserved better'_ because he was expecting her to let him know just what a fuck-up he was. In the light of her unwavering belief in him, that even though he was the kind of man who would jump into bed with someone who has been nothing but evil to him and to her, the kind of man who would disappoint Felicity, she still thought him to deserve better … Well, after that, he knew that protecting Felicity also meant protecting her from himself.  
  
So in his mind, his obligation to Felicity, as a teammate, a partner, and friend, was to protect her from their enemies and to protect her from himself. He vowed to stop at nothing, to do whatever it took, to fulfill that obligation.  
  
Little by little, even that, evolved.  
  
When he had that fight with Felicity over the time that she was spending with a comatose Barry Allen, he added ‘never make Felicity feel that she was just an employee to him’ to his list of obligations towards her. When Felicity told him about her fear of losing someone important to her again, he vowed to always be there for her. When Diggle told him that she had been feeling a bit left out of the team because of Sara’s presence, he included providing Felicity comfort and assurance to his list. At the height of his desperation over Slade, his obligation to Felicity included not disappointing her by giving up and killing Slade, and to give her his full trust. So much so that he did the un-thinkable, put Felicity at risk, in order for him to not be a murderer in her eyes.  
  
In the aftermath of Slade Wilson, he took stock in the silent vows he made towards Felicity.

  * One, protect Felicity from their enemies.
  * Two, be trustworthy to Felicity.
  * Three, never disappoint Felicity.
  * Four, protect Felicity from himself.
  * Five, never make Felicity feel that she is less important than a true partner.
  * Six, be there for Felicity.
  * Seven, be there to comfort Felicity.
  * Eight, be the hero that Felicity believes in.
  * Nine, trust Felicity at all cost.



Tonight, though, three months after they saved Starling City from Slade Wilson and his Mirakuru Army, Oliver found himself re-visiting his vows.  
  
Things had been had been steady in Starling City, so they all agreed to take the night off from the Arrow activities. Oliver, finding out that Felicity had taken advantage of their time off to go on some blind date, was at a dingy bar near his new apartment, looking to get smashed for the first time since he arrived back from his Starling City hiatus. He knew that getting drunk meant for him: he would be picking up the first attractive woman who would approach him and take her home for a night of unapologetic fucking.  
  
So far, four women have approached his corner of the bar. All attractive. All interested. The first one he found too tall. The second, too brunette. The third, too ginger. The fourth, well, she was petite and blonde, but she had grey eyes. So, no.  
  
As a fifth woman made her way towards him, he realised that while he was progressively getting drunk, he knew that he wasn’t going to be hooking up with anyone tonight. Not one of these available, attractive, perfectly fine women would do. Because, one, having a one night stand, or even an extended fling, would go against would disappoint Felicity, his second vow to her. For another, only one woman would do for him tonight. For every night. Forever.  
  
As he made his way out of the bar and back to his apartment, he once again listed his vows to Felicity in his head. He realised that third vow (never disappoint Felicity) had somehow mutated to ‘make Felicity happy’. Then he added a tenth vow: Be faithful to Felicity, whether or not she’s yours.  
  
He stopped in the hallway leading to his apartment, “Fuck me.”  
  
There was a simpler, shorter way to define the list of obligations, the sense of responsibility, he felt towards Felicity Smoak, the same ones that he did whatever it took to adhere to: Love.

**Author's Note:**

> Original post: http://outoftheclosetshipper.tumblr.com/post/93972303063/ff-12-whatever-it-takes


End file.
